As a follow up for Fleetlights, Smart Crossing is Direct Lines second experiment that aims to prevent accidents before they happen. This time, we wanted to tackle an urban problem, the pedestrian crossing.

The pedestrian crossing was designed in 1934, and back then our roads were used in a completely different way. Knowing that 1 in 4 road accidents happen at crossings, we created a fully responsive LED road, that can track elements and react to scenarios in only 0.3 seconds.

This prototype was tested and presented to tech companies and publications such as Wired, Fast Company, BBC, The Times, among others. You can watch the full case study below.

This experiment is now available as open source, for developers and councils interested on taking this project further. More information on this website.

The design task

The design challenge on this project was huge - we just needed to re-design a pedestrian crossing, that could react to different situations. Easy.

In terms of look and feel, we wanted the designs to feel modern and somewhat futuristic, but still simple so people could understand it straight away. The responsive surface added a new dimension to the design process, where we could explore not only static but also animated elements - that allowed us to test and experiment with shapes, colour transitions and movements.

To define the scenarios, we used in-depth research groups with relevant partnering agencies & workshops with our clients to get relevant data and insight, that ultimately drove our exploration.

Baseline crossing is the "normal/active" state of this road. This consists of pedestrian pads that are triggered by pedestrians standing on the circles to activate the crossing - similar to pressing a button to cross. The traffic flow won't be interrupted unless someone triggers the crossing.

Once the crossing is triggered, we have count-down bars that are meant to inform pedestrian and drivers of how long the crossing will be active for. In case of multiple pedestrians crossing, the crossing will extend and give room for everyone to cross.

*Tracker added to explain how the scenario works

Emergency Scenarios

With the surface being tracked by multiple cameras and a 0.3 response time, we worked on the 3 emergency scenarios that were identified during research.

Defector
In the head down culture we live in, we wanted to address pedestrians walking mindlessly off course into potential danger. If the pedestrian enters the road accidentally, a highlighted area will appear, alerting drivers and pedestrians.

Emergency
If a person walks beyond the 30 centimetres threshold of the defector scene, the road adapts halting all traffic, and chevrons will guide the pedestrian to safety.

High Sided Vehicle
On narrow roads. HSV can hide dangers, such as cyclists being blinded by them and not seeing the crossing. To highlight the potential risk to the cyclist, red chevrons appear on the cycle lane, alerting the cyclist, and preventing a collision.

*Tracker added to explain how the scenario works

*Tracker added to explain how the scenario works

*Tracker added to explain how the scenario works